In the field of wiring homes and buildings, whether for new construction or for improvements or expansion, substantial development and product improvements have been made. Typically, these improvements are directed to enabling installers to securely and safely mount any desired wiring to any desired location in the most efficient and quickest manner.
In any particular installation or location, various conduits or cables must be interconnected to each other as well as connected to a primary utility power supply in a suitable power distributing outlet box, junction box, meter box, or other electrical enclosure. In these instances, flexible metal conduit and/or armor or metalclad cables within which the electrical power carrying wires are contained, must be securely mounted to the housing of a junction box or outlet box, or connected to an appropriate solid or rigid metal tubing or conduit so as to provide appropriate grounding.
In addition, in order to assure that the installed conduits or cables and the electrical power carrying wires contained therein are properly and safely installed for operation, power distributing outlet boxes, junction boxes, meter boxes, and other similar enclosures typically incorporate a ground bus bar or the like which electrically bonds and secures a particular box to a properly installed ground electrode or ground rod which is typically electrically secured to earth ground. In this way, all of the power carrying wires installed in the particular home or building are properly associated with a ground conductor that is bonded and connected to an earth ground.
Various prior art grounding fittings (also called bonding and grounding clamps/connectors) have been developed to assist in providing a secure electrical ground to an electrical enclosure which are designed to interfit with a ground electrode or ground rod (see, for example, current assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,901,256 and 7,927,157). There has also been a need to provide such a grounding fitting which can easily further accommodate a rigid conduit or electrical metallic tubing (EMT) conduit that surrounds the ground electrode or ground rod. Although prior art grounding fittings have provided some attachment with respect to a rigid conduit or EMT conduit, such as shown in FIGS. 5-7 of U.S. Pat. No. 7,927,157, there has not been provided a grounding fitting which can be used with both a rigid conduit or EMT conduit in a way that securely fastens such a conduit to the grounding fitting in an inexpensive and reliable fashion.
There has further been a need to provide for a mechanical seal between the grounding fitting and an electrical enclosure so as to provide a fluid resistant barrier between the outside and the inside of an electrical enclosure once the grounding fitting has been installed. It is to provide such an improved grounding fitting to which the present invention is directed.